Year 4, Volume 2: National Office: Housing Sollutions

Planning Our Cities – The Delicate Balance

The word ¨habitat¨, according to the dictionary is a place or condition that is appropriate for sustaining the life of an organism, spices, plant or animal community. This definition leads us to think of a place where plants and animals live in harmony with the environment.

If we contemplate the concept of ¨human habitat¨ we might think of it as the unification of social and physical conditions that determine the coexistence of a population of people without taking into consideration a balance with nature. Thinking in this way creates a paradox concerning the concept of ¨habitat¨.

Why do the words ¨human habitat¨ give the impression that we differentiate ourselves from our habitat. Human behavior is what leads us to these conflicting concepts. Observe the difference between the ecological and the urban, the natural and the contaminated, between the environment and degradation of the environment.

The ¨habitat¨, the environment of which we form a part, shows us time and time again with greater violence that our concept of independent ¨human habitat¨ is indeed dangerous belief. Devastating consequences are imminent not only because of human destruction but also because of man’s lack of understanding that he is part of the whole picture, only a small part.

The tsunami that scourged Indonesia in 2004 leaving 200,000 dead, two million homeless with 370,000 homes destroyed or damaged; the floods in Santa Fe province in April and May of 2003 where 300,000 people were evacuated, the destruction of more that 5,000 homes, leaving dozens dead are two events in a long list of events which must be considered a wake up call to rethink our concept of ¨human habitat¨ by preplanning our cities and recognizing the true place of human beings in the equilibrium of this planet.

This is a collective responsibility that we all have to assume in order to maintain a balance that will not affect our place on this planet and the place of all living things in ¨the habitat¨.

Our human settlements must begin to work as interdisciplinary communities ww forming alliances where a variety of analysis takes place and concepts are developed to reduce risk and produce respect for maintaining an equilibrium in our environment, thus creating concepts that effect urban planning in a positive way. Through the use of technical, natural, economic, political, ecological, sociological, psychological and other disciplines the solutions can be found to return the environment to the planet’s original course.

Let’s not be fooled by looking for THE solution to problems concerning housing and environment when within these two areas there are an endless amount of considerations that should be addressed together. The human settlements need the coordinated effort of the families who live there, civil organizations, the government and the international community. The value of an interdisciplinary effort is to maintain/assure equilibrium in our habitat. Concepts like population vulnerability in the face of poverty, the lack of resources to strengthen community structure, and city planning can not be treated only from a technical or ecological perspective. Other concepts like the need for a community to agree on an action plan in the face of an emergency, and the use and structure of community homes can not be addressed from one point of view. These areas must be analyzed using an interdisciplinary ACTION PLAN to maintain our place as the predominant specie on the planet as much for the survival of our specie as well as for the planet as a whole.

Ariel Alejandro Sosa

National Coordinator UTN for Housing Solutions and Sustainable Development